WEATHER
Temperatures to drop
A cold front moving across the nation will send temperatures plunging to a low of 9°C in northern and central Taiwan by early this morning, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. All areas of the country are expected to experience a sharp drop in temperature from yesterday until this afternoon, the bureau said. After that, temperatures in regions north of the Chiayi area are expected to rise to between 15°C and 18°C, the bureau said. The cold weather will last until Friday, with a small chance of rain and snow in the mountainous areas of country, according to the bureau.
TRAVEL
Canada raises work quota
More Taiwanese will be able to take a working holiday in Canada next year after Ottawa raised the quota for Taiwanese participation in the program from 700 to 1,000, the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) said in a statement yesterday. “The Canadian Trade Office in Taipei is pleased to announce that we have increased our quota for the 2011 International Experience Canada initiative to 1,000 for Taiwan,” the office said. Taiwan and Canada signed an agreement earlier this year to launch the working holiday program on July 1. Under the program, people aged 18 to 35 from the two countries are allowed to travel and work in each other’s country for up to one year. The original annual quota of 200 was raised to 700 on July 27 because of an enthusiastic response from local youth. CTOT said it would be accepting applications for the program postmarked on or after Jan. 10. Taipei has signed working holiday agreements with six countries — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Germany and Japan.
BUSINESS
Foodies swap ideas
Food business operators from Taiwan and the US exchanged ideas on how to break into each other’s market on the opening day of the Gourmet Taiwan International Conference in Taipei yesterday. The opening ceremony was attended by more than 200 participants, including a group of 30 people from the US engaged in the food and hotel sectors, said the ROC-USA Business Council, the main organizer of the four-day conference. Chen Fei-lung (陳飛龍), executive supervisor of the business council, said he hoped that with the support of the government, Taiwanese foods and food businesses would be able to go international. Working with overseas compatriots and exploring global markets will be a positive force for the Taiwanese food industry because more jobs and business opportunities will be created, he said. The conference will include a series of keynote speeches and Taiwanese food business operators will have the opportunity to hold discussions with their counterparts from the US.
POLITICS
Kaohsiung officials resign
Senior Kaohsiung City Government officials yesterday resigned en masse to allow Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) to appoint her new administrative team for the soon-to-be-created Greater Kaohsiung municipality. A total of 24 political appointees, including Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得), stepped down while Chen promised to give talents from Kaohsiung County equal opportunities to serve in the Greater Kaohsiung Government. After the merger of the city and county is completed on Dec. 25, Greater Kaohsiung will become the nation’s second-largest administrative municipality. Chen said that age, gender and expertise would be key factors in choosing staffers.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Tibetans to walk 400km
Exiled Tibetans in Taiwan will start to walk from the north to the south of the island on Friday to raise public awareness of China’s suppression of their homeland. The 13-day event will be part of the “Walk for Tibet” global campaign aimed at “sharing our message of world peace, human rights and the Tibetan struggle for independence,” the organizers said. Jigme Norbu, nephew of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and son of the late Taktser Rinpoche, who supported Tibetan independence, will join the activity, Regional Tibetan Youth Congress Taiwan chairman Tashi Tsering said in a statement on Monday. The walk in Taiwan will cover more than 400km and 10 counties.
CHARITY
PBF to hold charity sale
The personal belongings of Taiwanese baseball celebrities will go on sale at a charity bazaar this week to raise money for premature babies, event organizer Premature Baby Foundation (PBF) said on Monday. Though national health insurance subsidizes between 80 and 90 percent of the medical care expenses for premature babies, some families still find it hard to afford extra treatment and counseling services that are not reimbursed by the insurance system, PBF president Lee Hung-chang (李宏昌) said. “We hope to raise public awareness about the needs of families with premature children through the sale,” Lee said. Yuki Huang, the mother of two premature babies born at 28 and 26 weeks respectively, said she was thankful for the financial support offered by the foundation. “Preemie parents have constant doubts about the babies’ well-being after being discharged from hospital,” said Huang, whose worries eased after enrolling in the foundation’s free follow-up program.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods